Visibility and Quality in Spanish-Language Latin American Scholarly Publishing

Gustavo E. Fischman, Juan Pablo Alperin, John Willinsky

Abstract

This article reports the results of a study of scholarly publishing in Spanish-speaking Latin America today. It draws on 230 surveys on journal publishing and nine journal publishing workshops, as well as on interviews and additional meetings conducted in 2007 and 2008 with a wide range of stakeholders in scholarly publishing (including editors, university publishers, and national science foundation directors) from 11 Latin American countries. The resultssuggest that the principal challenges faced by those involved in scholarly publishing in Latin America are establishing and maintaining the long-term sustainability of the journals, and achieving greater visibility for, and improving the quality of, published work, with an eye to increasing the contribution of these publications in ways that may yet be able to balance both regional and global interests.